A middle-aged man arrested for house breaking and stealing committed suicide inside police cells at Ngano Police station, in Nyandarua West Sub County.

Samwel Njenga Njogu, aged 40 years, was found this morning hanging from a noose he made using his trousers that he had tied on the cell’s ventilation grill.

Nyandarua County Police Commander Dr. Gideon Ngumi confirmed that Njogu had been booked in for house breaking and stealing within Charagita village in the county and was to be arraigned in court today.

“Today at about 5am, report office personnel (manning the station) visited the cells and found one prisoner having committed suicide by hanging using his trousers,” noted Dr. Ngumi, adding that his team had launched investigations into the incident.

The body of the deceased was moved to Nyahururu County Referral hospital mortuary to await a postmortem examination.

This comes in the wake of increased suicide and homicide cases in Nyandarua County with Health Cabinet Secretary Sicily Kariuki calling for concerted efforts to end the trend.

In a recent visit to Nyandarua County, Kariuki attributed the cases to high levels of drug and substance abuse, lack of proper parenting, and lack of communication in the family settings.

However, Kariuki said the government was working on a framework of interventions that would bring on board Nyumba Kumi initiative, village elders, and youth leaders, community health volunteers among other stakeholders who would be bestowed with the mandate to conduct promotive education and awareness campaigns in their neighbourhoods.

By KNA